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Aura slapped him across the face, the sound like thunder booming off the walls. “Stop telling lies! And I would never let you, your filthy tongue, or your disgusting cock, ever touch me. The prince and I have saved ourselves for one another all our lives, you savage bastard!” she shouted, her chest heaving. Aura waited for him to slap her back, to press a blade to her throat, to threaten her about her family, to do something in retaliation for striking the king. But he didn’t even lift a hand to his reddening cheek. She’d never slapped anyone before—there’d only ever been a few small scuffles and hair pulling when she, Liana, and Hana were younger.
A heavy silence filled the air as Rush studied her with a neutral expression. For a moment she thought he now understood how she felt, that he was going to give in and send her back home. But then a laugh, deep and mocking, poured out from his throat. “I think that was the most pathetic thing I’ve heard from your mouth yet. Do you honestly believe that? Are you so naïve?” He pushed her hair behind her shoulder as though she were a child. “And you’re telling me you haven’t let dear Prince Pax fuck you?”
Warmth flooded up her neck, and Rush chuckled again when she didn’t answer. “Oh, I see now.Hewanted you to wait for the wedding day, isn’t that right? Wanted to give you the illusion that he was a gentleman. But every night that you lay in your bed, staring up at the ceiling, touching yourself, you pretended it was that fucker making you moan. You would’ve let him slide that cock of his deep into your warm cunt the first day you met, wouldn’t you have? And there’s nothing wrong with that. We just met, and I wouldn’t mind fucking you one bit. To feel you clench around me, lick your arousal like sweet nectar, hear how loud or soft you gasp. You could even slap me again during sex. I like itrough.”
Aura’s cheeks blazed, growing hotter. No one had used such foul language toward her, but deep down, she wished Pax would’ve talked to her like that every time they’d kissed, touched. However, she wasn’t going to dignify his words with a response.
“Why do you hate Pax so much?”
“Does it matter?” Rush lifted a finger, running it across his lower lip. “Would you like privileges in my palace? Your room unlocked, to be able to walk around my gardens?” He waited a moment as if he truly wanted an answer before speaking again. “Then I suggest keeping that pretty mouth of yours shut and do as you’re told, kitten.”
“Stop calling me that!” she hissed.
“I’m sorry, do you prefer Princess Aura? As you said, this should’ve been your court. Take it back then. Kill me. Kill everyone here. Cast it back into darkness,” he challenged. “You heard the tales, I’m sure, and can’t deny that my family made itbetter.”
Aura tightened her fists and clenched her teeth, knowing that partwastrue. People had basked in filth, disease, and barely held money for food. “I’vealsoheard that your focus is having orgies here every night!”
“Noteverynight, but before coming to get you, indeed I did.” He smirked and lifted his fingers toward her face.
A shimmer of oil caught Aura’s attention just before she shut her eyes to avoid his touch. His fingertips were cool as they slid down her eyelids. She jerked back from him and rubbed at her lashes. What disgusting things had he been touching? A sudden tug of exhaustion flowed through Aura, like a warm blanket caressing her. “Take me home. I’ll do anything you wish.” She yawned, her eyelids becoming heavy.
Rush watched her closely, a smile growing wide across his face. “It’s too late. I could’ve taken one of your sisters, or even a girl from Moonstone, but I choseyou. You see, Irelishtoying with the prince.”
“You’re not half the man he is,” she slurred as though drunk on wine. What washappening? What had he done to her?
Rush’s smile fell away into a harsh sneer. “Ask Astor. He saw the prince with another woman while out with Hana.”
“Lies.” Aura collapsed against his chest as she yawned once more. Her muscles and bones were too heavy to gather the strength to push up from him, to claw at his face.
Rush’s sturdy arms looped beneath her knees and he lifted her, then carried her to the bed as her eyes drifted shut. She couldn’t care less that the blankets smelled of pleasure as their softness cocooned her.
“Sleep, Aura,” he whispered as something sharp pressed to her finger.
She opened her mouth to curse him, to ask what he was doing, but her tongue was too heavy to lift. The darkness hidden beneath her eyelids turned lighter, weaving colors together until a forest of lush trees brimming with plump fruit and bright flowers appeared.
Aura was in a dream—she knew it as one sometimes does. She was no longer in her wedding gown but a simple lavender dress embroidered in white beads. A woodsy scent drifted with the wind as it blew past her.
Behind her, a rustling stirred and she whirled around. Aura expected the king to be standing there, prepared to talk about his cock once more … even in her dreams. But her gaze landed on a slender woman with wild black hair, her pale blue dress sopping wet. She stood near a tree, her back facing Aura as she reached to grab an orange from a limb.
The woman couldn’t stretch far enough, so she jumped, snagging the fruit from the branch. She slowly turned to face Aura—eyes as blue as sapphires met hers, and a glowing smile shone on her heart-shaped face. She wasn’t a woman, after all, but a girl of around sixteen, just a couple of years younger than Hana.
“I’m waiting for him,” the girl said with her radiant smile. “He meets me here in secret. Always. I have something to confess to him, but I trust you won’t tell anyone.” She rubbed her stomach, and beneath the dress, barely noticeable, Aura saw a hint of a bump there. “He’s going to be so happy. He told me he’s always wanted a family.”
“Who are you?” Aura asked, attempting to recall if she’d ever seen her before.
“Um.” The girl furrowed her brow, concentrating. “I can’t remember.” And before Aura’s eyes, the girl vanished as if she hadn’t been there at all, leaving Aura alone in the forest, in this strange dream.
Aura pinched her arm as hard as she could, trying to pull herself out of slumber. “Wake up!” she screamed.
Flames crawled from the ground, licking their way up the trunks, engulfing them. Aura’s heart thundered as she looked for an escape, but the crackling fire faded. The forest was now completely gray ash. The only color came from her, making her a beacon in this dead forest. One by one the trees collapsed, bits of ash drifting up toward the gray sky. And then droplets of water rose from the ground, inching toward her and sliding across her skin. She attempted to wipe them away, but it was as though they were a part of her.
Aura screamed again, demanding to rouse herself from this pit of ash by thrashing, jumping, slapping her cheeks, yet she remained. A light brush tickled the inside of her chest, akin to a hand skimming across the muscle. Then a deep pain struck her index finger, the same sensation she’d felt earlier.
Her body jerked forward with a start, and she gripped her hand, but the brief pain in her digit had already subsided. She was awake, back in the bed inside Rush’s palace, and a small red spot marked her finger as though it had been pricked by something sharp.
Chapter Six
Rush
